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India fortunate to have ‘Trouble-shooter leader’ PM Shri Modi who fought from the front against Covid: Shri Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi
Union Minister visits ‘Hunar Haat’ in Puducherry, says farsighted steps taken by PM ensured health & well-being of people
Union Minister for Minority Affairs & Deputy Leader, Rajya Sabha, Shri Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi today said India is fortunate by the grace of the God to have a “Trouble-shooter leader” like Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, who fought from the front to get the world's largest democracy out of the biggest calamity of the century.
Speaking on the sidelines of ‘Hunaar Haat’ in Puducherry, he said the farsighted steps taken by Shri Modi not only ensured health and well-being of such a large population, but also saved the country’s economy from the crisis.
The Union Minister, who visited Hunaar Haat on its concluding day, told the media that the entire world had witnessed such a pandemic 100 years ago. "Spanish Flu" was the most severe pandemic in the recent history. At that time the total population of India  was about 30 crore, out of which about 2 crore people had died of "Spanish Flu". The pandemic had affected crores of people. Most of the deaths in India occurred due to starvation and lack of medicines.
“During the Corona pandemic, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi Ji worked tirelessly for the health and well-being of the people, which ensured that despite being a country with such a large population, this pandemic could not become a disaster in India. India is in a much better position when we look at the scary Corona figures of developed and resource rich countries of the world,” he said.
Shri Naqvi added: “The Modi Government provided free ration to more than 80 crore people during the Corona challenges. The world’s largest vaccination programme is going on in India; about 176 crore vaccine doses have been administered so far. About Rs 90 thousand crore were transferred directly into the bank accounts of more than 41 crore needy people. Free gas cylinders have been given to about 8 crore families. Rs 1500 have been given into bank accounts of 20 crore women. Rs 19 thousand crore have been given under “PM Kisan Samman Nidhi” to more than 11 crore farmers. “Aatmanirbhar Bharat” package worth Rs 20 lakh crore has been given to various sectors including Rs 1 lakh crore for agriculture sector. More than 60 lakh migrant labourers reached back safely to their home during Corona pandemic through Shramik Special Trains”.
According to the Union Minister, a package of more than Rs 31 thousand crore has been given to the states under State Disaster Relief Fund for providing assistance to migrant labourers. “When the first wave of the Corona came in India in 2020, there was a lack of ventilators, medicines, PPE kits, N-95 masks, testing labs for coronavirus, Corona dedicated hospitals, medical oxygen etc and the country was mainly dependent on export of these products. Due to the honest and tireless efforts of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi in the fight against the Corona pandemic, India has become self-reliant in health facilities to fight Corona.”
Stating that three “Made in India” Corona vaccines are available today, more than 70,000 Corona vaccination centres are functioning and there are more than 3000 Corona testing labs in the country, Shri Naqvi added: “The country is manufacturing 12 lakh Corona testing kits per day. More than 2000 dedicated Corona hospitals have been established; 4043 dedicated Corona health centres have been set up and there are now more than 15,000 Corona Care Centres. Total isolation beds  have been increased to around 15 lakhs as compared to 10,000 before the first lockdown. ICU beds have been increased to more than 85,000 as compared to just 2,000 before lockdown last year.”
He also said more than 5 lakh N-95 masks; 5 lakh PPE kits are being manufactured in India every day and more than 4 lakh Ventilators are being produced annually. “From just 900 MT per day before January 2020, production of liquid medical oxygen has now been increased to more than 9000 MT Per day. More than 2000 medical oxygen plants have been installed across the country through PM-CARES,” the Minister concluded.
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